Highschool -> GED > switched from part time to full time retail [1] -> grave digger/grounds keeper [2] -> full time retail [3] -> contractor for CBP [4] -> current job [5].

[1] Best Buy was ok. We were the product processing team so we had to throw the trucks, stock everything, reset the planograms, load heavy stuff, get stuff down stored up top etc. There were 4 of us, there were supposed to be 9 of us so we had to bust ass and it got pretty tiring.

[2] Minimum wage was 6$ and change, I was making 10! Outside 50-60 hours a day with no shade, got sun poisoning, had to bury a high school kid, had to bury an infant, would regularly sit in freshly dug graves just to cool down and get out of the sun for a few minutes and climb out before my boss would notice, if I had a fresh grave I'd usually eat my lunch in it too for the same reasons. Showed up at work one day working my way towards sun poisoning again and parked my truck. Sat there for a minute, put it in reverse and left and called the office guy and said sorry man I'm not coming back.

[3] I honestly loved everything at Lowes but the pay and the random hours. There was a guy that had a full time job, he only wanted to close. I didn't mind opening and would have been fine with opening and throwing the truck for the departments (hardware, always had to help tools because old guys). So what did they do? "Hey Larry we need you to open, Ryan you're closing"... blinks

[4] Got paid a fraction of what the federal employees did, took over the desk of a woman who had retired and apparently had stopped doing anything more than a year before and left a mess, was given zero training on SAP or what I was supposed to be doing and was given a single sheet of paper with some photo copy of a photo copy of a photo copy of a photo copy of some screenshots showing me vaguely what to do, the CPA was never in the office if it was nice out as he'd clock in and go play golf, the manager would come in and turn her light on, close the blinds on her window and either leave or just not answer her phone/door, guy across from my cubicle would come over to talk and sit in my extra chair and fall asleep every single day but he did manage to help me sorta figure out what I was supposed to be doing, DHS and other federal and state agencies were in the news for mismanaging funds and doing stuff like buying 2k$ bullet proof vests for dogs in Podunk, Middleamerica population 19 so put in a 30 day notice figuring I'd find a job quick.

[5] 13 weeks after my last week at CBP got hired by FTN, been here for 13 3/4 years. Same position I hired in to, although now on my 3rd job title as they change it every few years company-wide. Don't have a degree, only a GED, FedEx wants 4-year degrees minimum for everything. Been here twice as long as all 3 of my team leads, yes I have three team leads. The 3 people on my team immediately higher than me have been here 1/5-1/3 as long as me. 3rd shift makes 15% more than us so new hires start almost at what I make. If you want to move up you need a degree and if you want to be a manager (4 steps above me) you have to be willing to move to another state for (likely) years like my current manager (my 4th manager to date) had to. We share desks with another shift, I had one former desk mate management had to throw the entire contents of their drawer away and some of my stuff because they wore the same shirt every single day at work and kept it in their drawer between shifts, for years, and it smelled horrible because they'd go out and walk in the heat and humidity on their lunch and sweat it up. I had another desk mate that would pick and stick boogers on the monitor frame, the tower, underneath the desk, the stapler (we also have the walls covered by the urinals, and in the stalls, in both men's bathrooms from pick and stickers). Every year at best I can manage about 3% merit increase, I don't think I've ever actually got 3%. They just nuked our pensions to up 401k match, I already can't afford to contribute enough to get the match they had before let alone the new match. Insurance usually goes up more than my merit increase, 2019 I made 2k$ and change less than 2018 thanks to zero over time available. They said they were going to bring a bunch more jobs here so more room for advancement, instead they opened 2 satellite offices in other states. There are now people in those office that have been here 6-12 months that are now higher than me because they had to quick promote them. Realistically I will have to work here until I die as this job doesn't translate to anything else and I'm about to turn 35 without a degree. If I tried to get a degree I'd be 42ish probably and probably fail a few classes before I got used to school after being absent from it for half of my life. I'd then be 42ish going for entry level work with 40-60k$ in debt. I'd probably pay it off by 55ish, meaning I'd have 5-15 years to try and make up on 30-40 years of missed retirement contributions. If I don't die before then, cancer killed my father in his 40's and his mother in her 50's, my mother had cancer in her late 50's. Hate my job, completely dead end yet know I'm stuck here dealing with more and more absurdity until I die. Fun times.

I've worked in companies making decisions around which ERPs to implement. You have two options: roll your own ERP or adapt your processes to an existing one.

The first approach means that you are basically committed to becoming a software company. At a minimum an ERP needs to tie together your accounting, supply chain and inventory. So it's not a simple endeavor and it's easy to mess up. You'll need a team of people to build it and you'll need ongoing support. Compared to these costs, the price that SAP or NetSuite will charge you for their ERP is trivial.

Alternatively, you can adapt your processes to an ERP. In many cases, this is the right thing to do. It means that you can use readily-available software and have practices that are good enough.